Beresheet failed landing

Beresheet, the privately funded Israeli space mission to the moon did not land successfully. It came extremely close to executing a successful landing on the lunar surface, but a last-minute malfunction caused a mishap with the landing. The mission controllers in Israel said they had lost communications with their lander completely. However, the very fact that they came this close to doing something that only three other countries have accomplished goes on to show the team’s talent and dedication.

The United States, Soviet Union, and China are the only countries to have successfully landed a probe on the moon. Beresheet was launched in February onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and was ready to make its final descent on its intended location, but something went wrong with the final firing of the engines to slow the descent, causing the spacecraft to seemingly crash.

The effort by the Israeli team was lauded by the international community of astronomers and rocket scientists, and rightly so since they achieved about 99% of their mission and missed out only on the final moments. The privately funded project almost accomplished, with limited resources, something that has only been done by nations.

The entire project was started to bag the Google Lunar Xprize, which was announced to inspire private individuals to build and send out a probe to the moon. However, in light of the enormous technological, engineering as well as the financial challenges, no participating team could manage to accomplish the goals within the specified time limit. But the Israeli team decided to carry on with their endeavor in spite of the elapsed time.